A Slice of Thoughtfulness

Since it’s the season of thoughtfulness and giving and all things nice, I thought it’d be a good time to share a little ‘giving’ story…something that a long-time family friend did for me recently.

A few weeks back, I received a package from Uncommon Goods. They do this nifty little ‘surprise’ thing when they ship gifts to people…it’s just a random present in a box with a little card sharing an anonymous message from the sender…so you are literally sitting there with a gift and no clue who it’s from. This is especially true in my case – it wasn’t my birthday, anniversary, best friends day, love your aunt day, etc…just a random day of the week. In this case, it was, I believe, November 4, and someone sent me a lovely art piece: a two-toned wood tile with the Philadelphia skyline routed in.

I was stumped. No clue. But it was such a cool surprise that I couldn’t wait to find out who it was. It took me a bit! Hahaha. I felt terrible because I was unable to thank the gift giver right away.

It wasn’t until I went to recycle the box that I found a sealed envelope that ‘revealed’ the gift giver. It turned out to be a long-time family friend that I spent a ton of time with growing up. She now lives in Pittsburgh – quite a distance from her home / family / friends back near Philadelphia – so she identifies with the sentiments I often share on this blog about liking where you are / your new adventure but terribly missing ‘home’. She wanted to send a little encouragement booster as we celebrated our one-year anniversary in Oregon….such a thoughtful and sweet thing to do! There are many days where I question whether I (personally) can make it out here – and having someone who’s gone through a similar move, and is successfully living quite a distance from everything familiar while raising a young family, really meant a lot to me that day…and really, every day since.

I have since found a spot to display the piece – I pass by the tile every day and it reminds me – fondly – of home. It also makes me smile that she thought of me, and knew I might just need a little encouragement as we marked a milestone on this journey. Thank you, Katie!